Mondo Keyhole (1966)

directors Jack Hill, John Lambviewed: 08/16/2015

I haven’t watched many films that would be considered “roughies,” a micro-genre from the heyday of sexploitation films. A few years back, I watched Herschell Gordon Lewis’ Scum of the Earth (1963) and David F. Friedman and Lee Frost’s The Defilers (1965). Mondo Keyhole would fit right in.

Despite the “Mondo” in the title, the film isn’t exactly a documentary nor faux-documentary. It’s the story of a pornography producer who stalks and rapes women, ignores his drug-addicted wife, and finally gets a comeuppance from a martial arts black belt lesbian dominatrix. If that was enough to tittle your lations, there is another trope that ends up at an acid-induced orgy hosted by a vampire.

There runs an aspect of criticism of the exploiter, the porn producer/rapist is the villain who is ultimately punished. There is some irony in that the one of the disturbing aspects of “roughies” is that I think one is meant to be as titillated by the violence doled out on the women as the sex and nudity. It’s a pretty dark and bleak little micro-genre, but Mondo Keyhole is certainly and interesting flick.

Co-director Jack Hill went on to many great pulpy films. This one, his first, is actually pretty darn interesting, if off-putting as well.